The study is something of a presidential report card — there are 78 recommended actions for improving our administration’s failing grades.

Imperial Life In The Emerald City: Inside Iraq’s Green Zone, by Rajiv Chandrasekaran — Washington Post reporter Chandrasekaran describes the disparity between the Who’s-Your-Baghdaddy-T-shirt-selling Green Zone (Coalition Provisional Authority headquarters) and the very red, warring country outside. Check out John Freeman’s review here.

The filmsThe War Tapes — The first feature-length war documentary shot by soldiers — Sergeant Steve Pink, Sergeant Zack Bazzi, and Specialist Mike Moriarty, all members of the New Hampshire National Guard — is, well, sort of homegrown. The movie opens with the cameras wrenching under attack — we’re not in Massachusetts anymore, though Sergeant Pink’s thick Kingston accent is real enough.

During deployment, Sergeant Bazzi admits, “Do I really wanna go [to Iraq]? Probably not.” But in an interview with PBS’s Tavis Smiley and Tapes director Denorah Scranton upon his return, Bazzi tells us that he doesn’t think “Americans have the right to be insulated and protected from this war.” And that’s exactly what this kids-in-the-war-zone documentary does not do. The film is available on DVD.

Iraq In Fragments — As the film’s title suggests, Iraq in Fragments is a story told from three perspectives — one Sunni, one Shiite, and one Kurdish. In his director’s statement, James Longley (Gaza Strip) writes, “It was never my intention to make a ‘war documentary.’ I wanted to make a film about Iraq as a country, about the people of Iraq.” Longley’s film succeeds in rendering the country, and the people of Iraq at war, in sepia frames, engulfed in rising black smoke and the hum of crowds and war vehicles.

The film screened in November at the Kendall Square Cinema. Check the film Web site (iraqinfragments.com) for upcoming screenings and the DVD release date.

Obsession — I caught the airing of this documentary on Fox Network, on a plane, after an episode of The Dog Whisperer. This film, like mauled dogs, is not for the weak-of-stomach, which I unfortunately found out while in seat-back-upright position, face-to-face with graphic footage of terrorist acts set to a hip-hop soundtrack. The film, which sets out to relate radical Islam to Nazism, draws on extensive Arab and Iranian television footage — comparing Americans to pigs, etc. — and commentary from counterterrorism figures such as Nonie Darwish, the daughter of a Fedayeen terrorist. I won’t comment on the parallel, except to say that I could not stop watching it, with its scenes of things such as little girls fervently chanting Jihadi kill-Americans-in-the-name-of-Allah. The film is available for pre-release order on DVD.

The web sitesRiverbendblog.blogspot.com — Leave it to me to pick a “Girl Blog from Iraq.” Iraqi girly-girl-turned-blog-award winner Riverbend (her pseudonym) blogs about Iraqi culture — check out her link to iraqimusic.com — and politics in a time of war, where “A day in the life of the average Iraqi has been reduced to identifying corpses, avoiding car bombs, and attempting to keep track of which family members have been detained, which ones have been exiled, and which ones have been abducted.” Her New Year’s post: the top 10 reasons you know your country is in trouble.

Criminal intent Ed Burns — former Baltimore homicide detective, Vietnam vet, and long-time writing partner with David Simon, both on the The Wire and on Generation Kill , spoke with the Phoenix about the new series.

The Host Running a rubber-gloved finger across gallons of dust-covered bottles of formaldehyde, a US military official orders a Korean morgue attendant at a US Army base in Seoul to “empty every bottle to the very last drop.

Iraq + surge = ??? Certain that the newly elected Democratic Congress will not end American involvement in the Iraq War, Rhode Island peace movement leaders are calling for additional demonstrations to bring US troops home.

Debating the Middle East muddle US military aid to Pakistan and Afghanistan is being wasted and should be redirected to the police and moderate non-violent groups working for education and the rule of law, according to two Middle East experts who spoke Sunday at the Community Church of Providence.

Resolution of the Maine Democratic State Committee Whereas, the Maine Democratic State Committee strongly supports the brave men and women serving in the United States Armed Forces in Iraq and recognizes the sacrifices that each of them is making; the Democratic State Committee stands ready to help these servicemen and women in any way it can.

Bush's secret army The 9/11 attacks provided a catalyst: an unprecedented justification to forge ahead with a radical agenda molded by a small cadre of neoconservative operatives.

Q is for quagmire In response to your recent coverage of the president’s policy in Iraq, I would like to point out that the House of Representatives passed an amendment to the 2006 Supplemental Appropriations Act which forbids the Pentagon from entering into any basing agreement with the government of Iraq.

Trapped in Iraq Watching the Senate Armed Services and the Foreign Relations Committees question Iraq proconsul General David Petraeus about the status of the war was a disturbing experience.

When GI Joe says no A young former US Army sniper wearing a desert-camo uniform, an Iraqi kaffiyeh, and mirrored sunglasses scans a ruined urban landscape of smashed homes, empty streets, and garbage heaps.